Reward offered for return of $50K stolen bikes

(Courtesy photo: The Bicycle Center)


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SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City bike shop is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the return of five stolen bicycles, valued at roughly $50,000, stolen July 30.

Philip Blomquist owns Bicycle Center, a bike shop where he's made friends that last for miles.

"I'll go to a Jazz game and be walking down the corridor, and I'll think 'that guy is a rock hopper,' 'that guy is a stump jumper,' 'that guy is a hard rock,'" Blomquist recalled.

But of all the people who have visited his shop recently, he really wishes he knew two guys in particular.

"It's a little bit discouraging," Blomquist said. "It's awfully frustrating when people take advantage of you."

Last Thursday morning, two guys broke into his shop and ran off with five bikes in less than a minute. Employees think the thieves knew exactly which bikes to take because the week before, they had to force two suspicious guys to leave the store.

It appears they were casing the place.

(Courtesy photo: The Bicycle Center)
(Courtesy photo: The Bicycle Center)

"Every shop owner I know struggles with it every year," said Chad VanSolkema, an employee at Bicycle Center. "Usually once a year to even a couple of times a year, things like this happen at most bike shops."

Thieves like these don't know, though, that these bikes are specialized — you can't just sell them like a regular bike.

"It's gonna be really hard to sell them," VanSolkema said. "I mean, anyone from KSL Classifieds to eBay to CraigsList, if they put them on there, they're going to get caught pretty fast."

That's what Blomquist is hoping, too. He's offering a reward to anyone who offers information that leads to their arrest. Maybe the thieves were bragging about their work, or someone heard them during the attempt.

If anybody knows anything or recognizes the robbers in the video above, call the police.

"They will be caught, they will go to jail, and they will pay the price for the things they've done," Blomquist said. "You can't live a life like that and expect to get away with it."

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